Under the System everyone is assigned a numerical Score that decides their worth to society and whether they live or die.

Charley has escaped from Meritropolis...

but in his quest to take down the System that has taken his brother from him, he must go through Meritorium, a city where gladiatorial games of life or death combat are waged between High Scores and Low Scores, man and beast.

Charley and Sandy must face man-eating plants, religious zealots, slave traders, and the ever present mutant animal combinations that roam a dystopian Coliseum presided over by Emperor Titus, the one man standing between Charley and the answers he seeks. Man is not an animal, but if they are to make it through Meritorium, will they even be able to tell the difference?

The lines between man and beast, friend and foe, will blur in Meritorium, the riveting sequel to the bestselling Meritropolis.

Review:

“Meritorium” is the second book in the Meritropolis series. The debut book, “Meritropolis”, introduced a unique and well-developed world, along with an interesting cast of characters. Unfortunately, “Meritorium” did not live up to the original.

The characters and plot are still interesting, which is what frustrated me the most about the problems in the book. There was quite a bit of “over-explaining”, which did nothing but slow down the flow of the plot and cause me to grow impatient with it. Additionally, there were some interesting religious themes, but instead of letting the story carry them, they were also explained in too great of detail. It reduced the impact and made it read like a sermon, whereas subtlety would have given much more for the reader to ponder.

“Meritorium” had a lot of potential, but I can’t recommend it because of the reasons above. I’m still looking forward to the next in the series, as I have high hopes it will return to the writing style the made “Meritropolis” so good.

This review is based upon a complimentary copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.